


Any Other Name

by surrexi



Category: Doctor Who RPF, Real Person Fiction
Genre: F/M, Infidelity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-02
Updated: 2013-01-02
Packaged: 2017-11-23 10:13:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/620995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surrexi/pseuds/surrexi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“If I had a son,” David said decidedly, “I’d name him Winston.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Any Other Name

David sat in the living room of his flat, surrounded by a dim halo of light from a single table lamp.  He fought twin urges to check his cell phone for messages and get up to pace the floor.

“Not your job, mate,” he muttered, running his hand through his disheveled hair.  He glanced at his watch.  She’d been at it for over twenty-four hours, he thought a little wildly.  Closer to twenty-six, and it had been ages since she’d texted him or Laurence had phoned with an update.  He pictured her screaming, struggling to push life into the world, and desperately wished it was him by her side, not Laurence.

“Bollocks,” he bit off, pushing to his feet once again.  Laurence was her husband, Laurence was the father of the baby, Laurence got to be at the hospital, and David was just her best friend.  _Then again_ , whispered a voice in the back of his head.  He ruthlessly shoved it away.  She’d have said something, wouldn’t she?

He had only just begun to pace, following the same path he’d followed countless other times since he’d arrived home from Stratford after leaving before the ink was dry on the programs he’d signed at the stage door that afternoon, when the familiar melody of “Me and the Farmer” caused him to leap back towards his phone.  It was a text message Laurence had sent from Billie’s phone.

_it’s a boy!  6lb 11oz, fingers and toes all in order, loads of brown hair, mum and winston are doing brilliantly._

David’s knees nearly gave out from underneath him as he read the message, and before he could think it through, he was grabbing his coat and wallet and striding out the door.

 

\--- _seven months earlier_ \---

Sunlight streamed through his bedroom windows and made Billie’s skin glow and her eyes sparkle as she smiled at him.

“I just can’t believe it,” he said, pressing his palm to her still-flat belly and looking up at her in amazement.  “A baby,” he breathed, and because he loved her, he didn’t ask if he had the right to be feeling proprietary at that moment.  “Billie the Piper, a mum.”

She giggled, and loved him for smiling instead of questioning.  “I’m so excited, Dave,” she said happily.  He pressed a kiss just above her belly button and then trailed soft kisses up her torso.

“You’re sure this is okay?” he murmured from the valley between her breasts, meeting her eyes.  “It won’t hurt the baby?”  She shifted sinuously beneath him and nodded slowly, then tugged his face forward until their lips met in a deep kiss.

A long time later, she was snuggled against him, her head resting against his shoulder and her fingers tracing patterns on his chest as the sunlight faded around them.  He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and trailed his hand slowly up and down her back.

“Have you thought about names?” he asked suddenly.

“Mmm,” she said, shifting a little and craning her neck to look at him.  “A little.  I haven’t decided if I want to be surprised or find out as soon as I can if it’s a boy or a girl.”  She wasn’t sure if she wasn’t mentioning Laurence on purpose, or if it just came out that way.

“If I had a son,” David said decidedly, “I’d name him Winston.”

Billie pulled back and leaned over him in amusement.  “Winston?”

“Like Churchill,” he said.  “I’m claiming the name now, you know.”  He wagged his finger at her.  “No stealing.”

Billie smiled down at him and shook her head a little.  “Ten-inch, you never cease to surprise me.”  She leaned down and kissed him, then giggled.  “Winston Tennant.  ‘S got a ring to it, I suppose.  Or would it be McDonald?”  She tilted her head in consideration.  “Winston McDonald sounds even better.”

David rolled them over so that he was leaning over her, his grin matching hers.  “Either way, I still have to find little Winston a mum before I worry about that.”  For a moment, he thought something flickered in Billie’s eyes, but then her smile reached back up to them and he bent to kiss her again.

 

\--- _present day_ \---

David pulled the hood of his sweatshirt further over his head as he hurried towards the hospital entrance.  He hadn’t noticed any paparazzi, but given the situation, he thought it impossible to be too careful.

A short time and one conversation with a stammering nurse who he thought might have actually called him “Doctor” at one point, David stood in the doorway of Billie’s hospital room.  She was sitting up in her bed, cradling her son and staring down at him lovingly.  Laurence was staring out the window at the winking city lights.  David hadn’t moved or made a sound, but Billie seemed to sense him anyway.  She looked up from the baby and met David’s gaze immediately.

“David,” she said, and he thought she’d never said his name quite like that.  He stepped haltingly into the room.  Laurence looked over his shoulder at David and his face froze in an almost-neutral expression.

“I won’t intrude,” he said stiffly.  In a few quick strides, he was brushing past David and out the door.  “I’ll be down the pub,” he muttered, unable to completely disguise the bitterness in his voice.  “Celebrating.”

David walked slowly towards the bed, his gaze trained on the brown-haired baby in Billie’s arms.  Winston.

“Hi,” Billie said when he reached the bed.  He tore his gaze from the baby to meet her eyes and saw a hint of tears forming.

“Winston?” he whispered, the name replacing the question he had never asked, would never ask in so many words.

Billie nodded solemnly, a lone tear escaping to slide down her cheek.  “Winston.”  She shifted the baby in her arms and patted the bed next to her.  David carefully sat down facing her and searched for words.  Finding none that could encompass the shock and wonder he was feeling, he simply stared back and forth between the woman he loved and the baby they’d made together.  There were a thousand questions running through his mind, about their future, about whether or not the world would know that Winston was his son, about the role he’d be allowed to have in his son’s life.  Then Billie smiled, the serene smile of a new mum sharing a miracle.

“Would you like to hold your son, David?”

His own eyes filling with tears, he held out his arms and took Winston from Billie.  His accent thickening from the emotion, he spoke softly to the boy.  “Hello, Winston.  I’m your papa.  I love your mummy very much.  And,” he added, pressing a feather-light kiss to his son’s forehead, “I loved you before I knew your name.”

He looked up at Billie and saw that her tears were flowing freely now.  “I love you, Bills,” he said, and leaned forward to kiss her with their son between them.

“I love you, too,” she whispered against his lips, and he knew that none of the complications they were going to face mattered.

He’d found his family.

**Author's Note:**

> This is where my brain went when I heard Billie had named her son Winston, because I am a terrible person? OH WELL. Originally written shortly after Winston was born and posted on the billandteninch LJ community. Un-beta'd.


End file.
